BCLA Readers' Advisory Interest Group

Reading for Running Inspiration

Will you be joining me and over 40,000 other runners at Vancouver’s 2017 Sun Run on April 23rd?

If you’re training for the Sun Run or another run this Spring, you may need a bit of inspiration to stick with your program every now and again. Find motivation in a great runner’s memoir or enjoy a novel with a running theme for a creative look at the runner’s psyche. Many of the titles I recommend are available on audio – listen while you run!

Alternatively, if you join Richmond Public Library with the Running/Walking Book Club idea floated by Meghan Savage on this blog last month, these titles could be useful fodder for accompanying booklists.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder

The Illegal by Lawrence Hill

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe

Mile Markers: The 26.2 Most Important Reasons Why Women Run by Kristin Armstrong

The Oatmeal’s The Great and Terrible Reasons Why I Run Long Distances by Matthew Inman

Once a Runner by John L. Parker Jr.

Paula My Story So Far by Paula Radcliffe

Run or Die by Kilian Jornet

Runner: A Short Story About a Long Run by Lizzy Hawker

Running Like a Girl: Notes on Learning to Run by Alexandra Heminsley

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron

Running Uphill by Fil Fraser

Run to Overcome: The Inspiring Story of an American Champion’s Long-Distance Quest to Achieve a Big Dream by Meb Keflezighi

Tales from Another Mother Runner by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea

Terry by Douglas Coupland

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

What I Talk About When I talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Why We Run A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich

PS The Barkley Marathons finished yesterday with a heartbreaker of an outcome for North Vancouver’s Gary Robbins. If you haven’t already watched the documentary, The Barkley Marathons, it is a highly bizarre yet incredibly compelling slice of the running life in which books are involved in the race.